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Helping

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Human Service Professionals and Helping Skills
Sara Ouellette
BSHS/305
May 23, 2016
Cassidy Hawf

Human Service Professionals and Helping Skills In our society today there is a great need for helping professionals being able to work with individuals as well as their families and communities. The dysfunction that starts in a single family can spread to affect many people throughout a geographical area. Helping just the one individual sometimes is not the answer because without correcting their surroundings, what you do to help them will be in vain. Once reintroduced to the situation that they had been removed from for treatment or help they will revert to their old ways and behaviors that brought them to you in the first place and thus a vicious cycle will begin. It is important to know your client base and what helping services will work best to get positive results.
The Helping Process There are infinite ways of helping people. There are however set practices that all helping professionals learn and will use in their day to day interactions with their clients. There are five stages of the helping process that can be applied to every client: 1. Physical setting and review – Before your client ever arrives you should make sure that your space is inviting and comfortable. It should put your client at ease and make it easier to talk to them. You also will have gone over any files that have been provided to you so that you have a back ground on your client. This will give you a starting point and give you invaluable insight even before you meet. 2. When the client arrives – It is important when meeting your client for the first time that you introduce yourself and the organization that you represent giving the client information about what services that you will be able to offer them. Keeping a low even tone and making eye contact are very important as it lets your client know that you care and want to help them. Invite them in and to the seating area where you will be able to start building a relationship of trust. 3. Exploring the problem(s) – At this point the helper should be asking the client what they think the problem(s) are and be asking questions of the client to try and ascertain if the client has a realistic idea of their issues or if the helper sees more or different issues than the client. Trying to get to the root issues so that they can then address these problems and work towards resolution. 4. Intervention – At this stage in the helping process the helper and the client have agreed on the issues at hand and it is time to discuss how to move forward and get a plan in place by setting goals. 5. Termination – Once the helper and the client have followed the intervention plan and all goals have been met then the end of the helper/client relationship is called termination. (Woodside & McClam, 2011, chapter 7) It is very important to know that there are certain things that you as a helper can do to make your job go more smoothly. Knowing how to work with people, make the feel comfortable and at ease talking to you even if they are there involuntarily as a condition of their probation or parole or because DCF is involved in their case. Communication is key and you will both give and receive verbal and non-verbal cues as to how things are going. Something to keep in mind is that you want your client to know that you are engaged and are paying attention to them and their situation. There are five suggestions to let your client know that you are truly paying attention to them and the acronym to help remember them is S.O.L.E.R. * S – Face your client SQUARELY * O – Adopt an OPEN posture * L – LEAN toward the other person * E – Maintain good EYE contact * R- Try to be RELAXED Along with S.O.L.E.R there are some suggested “attentive” behaviors that let your client know that you are listening. Visual eye contact, vocal qualities, verbal tracking and body language are all examples of “attending behavior”. (Woodside & McClam, 2011 chapter 7) Involuntary Clients Working in the human service field as a helper will involve working with people who want and ask for help and those who don’t really want to be there but they have to for one reason or another. They may have to complete a program with you as part of probation and parole, they may be involved in an open case with DCF, or they may have been ordered by a judge to seek help. In these cases it may be difficult to open communication and build a client / helper relationship. There has been some evidence that a relationship-based approach may be beneficial when working with involuntary clients. In this approach the framework is based on recognition, respect and reciprocity to provide the base for working with the involuntary client. (Turney, D. 2012 149-159)’ There has been some research into neighborhood based child welfare practices. This approach emphasizes community service networks, and works to include birth and foster parents in the planning and implementation of the most effective and least disruptive plan for the children involved. It is thought that by inclusion of all involved for the goal of permanency for the children involved that the process will work more smoothly and create the best outcome for all involved. (Altman, J.C. 2008, 41-61) Implementing this approach with involuntary clients will show them that they still have some say in the implementation of any plan involving their children and help build on the client and helper relationship as they will see the helper as an advocate for them and not an enemy. Something that will be a challenge in any human service situation involving involuntary clients will be trying to keep them engaged and in the program. Many clients will have a preconceived idea of what a helper is and will be resistant to working with them. If the client grew up in the system and had what they felt was a bad experience, getting them to cooperate will be difficult. Those who feel that they are being forced to do something are more apt to be non-participating and very uncooperative. These clients are usually the ones who truly need the help the most but because it wasn’t their idea they do not want to participate. Sadly the statistics are against keeping people in programs. The dropout rate for compliant clients it 35-70% with higher rates among the involuntary clients. (Dawson & Berry 2002, 293-317)
Conclusion
Being in the helping profession can be one of the hardest jobs because most times the people you are there to help are not there willingly and do not trust that you are there to help them. It takes a special person to go into a profession where they know from the start that there are going to be people that they cannot help. If followed properly, the helping stages will increase the success rate with the client/helper relationship. Following the best approach for each situation will also increase the success of individual cases.

References
Woodside & McClam, 2011 An Introduction to Human Services, 7e chapter7
Turney, D. (2012) A Relationship-based Approach to Engaging the Involuntary Client: The Contribution of Recognition Theory. Child & Family Social Work, 17 (2) . 149-159 11p doi:1111/j.1365-2206-2012.00830x

Dawson, K. & Berry, M (2002) Engaging Families in Child Welfare Services: An Evidence Based Approach to Best Practice. Child Welfare, 81 (2) 293-317

Altman, J. C. (2008) Engaging Families in Child Welfare Services: Worker versus Client perspectives. Child Welfare, 87 (3) 41-61. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/dooview/213807520?accountid=458

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